The plotline reportedly had the protagonist, Betty, using a perfume poisoned with, among other things, toad venom, identified by the doctor specifically as coming from Bufo alvarius.

Medical authorities have analyzed the script and found the effects of the so-called poisonous perfume to be fictional. The newspaper quoted a pharmacology professor at USC who said that the violent effects supposedly experienced by Betty were “invented by the show for dramatic effect” and that it was unrealistic to expect anything harmful to come from applying perfume containing these ingredients to the skin.

Now, maybe I am paranoid, but what concerns me is the fact that toad venom, more particularly Bufo alvarius venom, is being portrayed as the villain in this television comedy. Could it be that the next battlefield in America’s hopeless War on Drugs is being fought on network television?

One wonders what would have happened if a script writer had submitted a storyline in which Betty smoked some dried venom from a Colorado River toad and developed new insights, such as that she should not be watching so much television? Or even worse, that she should stop buying products advertised on tv?

Yes, of course that would be ridiculous. But is it not just as ridiculous as the scenario that actually happened?

Oh, well. At least they didn’t have anybody licking a toad this time.

You can read the entire LA Times story at: http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/health/la-he-unreal28jan28,1,7837073.column?ctrack=2&cset=true

They’ve (they as in “our” government) have made plants which grow naturally and independently on the earth into feared and despised illegal substances, now they plan to designate a living creature, an animal, to be an illegal “substance” and a “drug?” What are these people smoking??

“Just say no” to both messing with the poor toads, and to ridiculous and unenforceable drug laws. That slogan sounds much better to me.”

He then went on to quote a December 27, 2007 article from the Hanover and Gettysburg, Pennsylvia Evening Sun that reports a conversation with the Pennsylvania State Police about someone accused of licking a Colorado River toad with the intent to get high.

Poor Bufo alvarius. Don’t people understand that you’re not supposed to lick these little critters? Yes, the toads do secrete bofotenine, a hallucinogenic alkaloid, but don’t lick it, please.

Actually, in reading more of the replies to this online forum, it was very sad for me to see that one of the people suggested that you would have to kill a toad in order to extract its hallucinogenic venom. I certainly hope this is not the commonly accepted thought.

Not everyone in the forum who posted about toad licking was as ignorant, however. I was pleased to see one person quoting Thomas Jefferson, who said: “”If people let the government decide what food they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be a sorry state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.”

If you would like to read the entire online conversation about toad licking, the url is: http://www.drugs-forum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=45385.

The fact that the establishment is only now discovering that people are willing to expend a lot of effort to get a buzz on may go a long way to explain the miserable failure of hallucinogen prohibition in the United States. Does nobody in the D.E.A. remember Donovan’s prediction that “Electrical banana is going to be the very next craze?”

Many reports are now being published about how bufotenine is a psychedelic substance that can be obtained from Bufo alvarius toads, and that governments are trying to regulate Sonoran Desert toads, also called Colorado River toads.

A few months ago in Kansas City, a man was charged with the posession of a controlled substance when he was found to be the owner of a Bufo alvarius toad. According to Daniel White, the Clay County Prosecutor, the fact of owning a toad is not illegal, but possession for the intent of getting high from its venom was not legal.

White was quoted as saying, “It’s sort of New Age way to get high. You convince yourself it is OK because it is something you get naturally from our environment.

“There are a lot of things that are created naturally but they are still not legal,” he reportedly said.

Of course this begs the question of why things suddenly become illegal, as alcohol did during prohibition in the ’20s. One day alcohol was fine, and then, with the stroke of a lawmaker’s pen, drinking was a criminal act. Once it was seen that prohibition was an utter disaster, and it only encouraged criminal activities, it was repealed.

Soon, one hopes, the prohibition of other natural, psychoactive materials will also be repealed. When this happens, dealing drugs will become less profitable, and many of the problems associated with, for example, hydroponic cannabis cultivation, will be eliminated.

Until then, Bufo alvarius owners, enjoy your pets for companionship purposes only, and be careful to hide any instructional material you may have about the best way to dry and smoke its potent venom.

We are both amused and cheered by the remarks of Jacob Sullum in his December 5, 2007 blog when he wrote:

“Evidently God committed some serious felonies when He created all those psychoactive plants and animals. Manufacturing with intent to distribute on such a massive scale probably would trigger a life sentence even for Him.”

Thank you, Mr. Sullum, and congratulations for injecting a long-overdue dose of sensibility into the foolishness and stupidity of the so-called War on Drugs in the United States of America.

When someone declares war on ignorance, greed or callous disregard for human rights, let me know and I will enlist.

Buy Bufo Alvarius toads

If you have ever heard of the Psychedelic Toad or about people licking toads to get high, it is most likely they were talking about Bufo Alvarius. Also called the Sonoran Desert toad and the Colorado River toad, Bufo Alvarius is unique because of its venom. These large toads have glands that produce a milky white venom that is composed of as much as fifteen percent the alkaloid 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MEO-DMT). This is a powerful hallucinogen, the mind altering effects of which were discovered in the late 1950s. 5-MEO-DMT is the active ingredient of hallucinogens used traditionally by several South American tribes.

Albert Most, the author of “Bufo Alvarius: The Psychedelic Toad of the Sonoran Desert” does not discuss the licking of toad venom in his text. Rather, his information involves drying and then smoking the toad venom in order to achieve what he calls “almost overwhelming psychedelic effects.” These effects are evidently not unlike those generated by LSD, in which hallucinations, visual illusions and distortions of the perception occur. The episode is relatively short, however, perhaps as little as fifteen minutes, after which, Most writes, “There is no hangover or harmful effect.”

See below for more about the Bufo Alvarius toad, or click now to buy them